Daffodils
Bright yellow flashes.
Flowers dotting the landscape.
Messengers of spring.
Blurry, but beautiful daffodil and hidden spider - Grants Pass - April 13, 2012
Holes in Stone
Holes in Stone - Lincoln City - September 2011
Stone studded with holes.
Reminder that even rock
Is subject to change.
Eddies in the Dust of Rage
Broken Piano Foot - Our Basement, Portland, Oregon - June 2010
Today was another page in the Troubles of Mom, sadly. Still don't want to say much in such a public forum, but the end result is that I'm feeling angry and sad tonight. So angry that the poetry I come up with is something like this:
Anger.
Angry.
Angrier.
Rage.
sigh
I'm reminding of a song from Bruce Cockburn, "Pacing the Cage", which has the amazing lyrical image of "eddies in the dust of rage". The difficult waiting game, waiting out the rage, reminds me a lot of this song tonight.
And then on my commute home there was an enormous rainbow, clearly seen in a glorious arc across a gray, spring sky.
It is hard practice sitting between the simple joy of rainbows and unethical people hurting my Mom. Practicing with my own anger very certainly feels like all the training wheels are off.
And yet, there is this nagging commitment to poetry...
Waiting with Anger
Difficult
Is the
Practice
of patience.
Distilling
Anger,
Impatience,
Irritation,
Into the
Stillness
Of the
Heron fishing.
There's a video on YouTube of Bruce Cockburn performing "Pacing the Cage", check it out!
Season of Loss
Paper Memorial "Stupa" - Westminster, Colorado - May 2011
Season of Loss
In my dreams
Last night
You were there.
Still smiling,
That sparkle
Was as as bright
As I remembered.
Your laughter
A song.
When I awoke
Another spring
Was blooming
Awake outside,
Vibrant and alive.
Another season
Without you.
I was dreamed of my friend Jen last night, who left us just over a year ago.
Baby Veggies
Baby Brassicas - Portland, Oregon - May 2011
Reaching to the sun.
Young vegetables growing
Into nourishment.
Apple Blossoms
Apple Blossoms, Old Town, Portland, April 2012
Clusters of petals
Hang from thin stems, fluttering.
Spring's dancing clouds.
Clocks
Clock Tower, UC Berkley, May 2010
My Father's
Clock sits
On the table.
Still and
Silent.
A reminder
Of both
Time
And
Loss.
Waiting to
Become useful
Again.
Morning Dove
Denver international Airport, May 2011
Morning dove calling.
For a moment I am caught,
Standing, listening.
Water Dreams
Lincoln City, Oregon, September 2011
Dreaming of water.
Waves moving, lapping, smoothing.
Calming fluctuations.
Unfolding Beauty (and Practice)
I had acupuncture today, a long session to discharge all the chaotic energy I've been running on for weeks now. Mostly the only poem I could come up with is:
Too tired
To make
Poetry.
So here's a great opportunity to practice with the side of me that stokes up that chaotic energy to just tough it out, get through. The side that prods the voice that's tired and small into producing anyway. Here's a chance to practice a gentleness that encourages that a haiku "counts" and isn't slacking off on the 30-poems-in-30-days goal.
New Butterflies, Westminster, Colorado, May 2011
And here it is, a haiku about new butterflies.
Emerging slowly.
Wings wet and still unfurling.
Unfolding beauty.